34 Booklist September 15, 2015 www.booklistreader.com
Martha Gunn. The victim, called The Man by
police, proves very difficult to identify. An old-fashioned child’s shoe and four WWII army
medals are hidden on his person, and investigation shows that he was well spoken, cultured,
and never gave his name, speaking of himself
as being among the dead. Gunn works out the
literary clues that lead to solving the case as
she, a widow, puzzles over her relationship with
Randall, with his complicated personal situation. Masters’ sixth Martha Gunn mystery, a
procedural that details the painstaking police
work needed to close such a case, is elevated by
the details of the personal lives of the members
of Randall’s team and members of the Gunn
family, with Gunn’s twin teenagers adding life
to the story. With the Gunn-Randall relationship at its center, this is an understated series
that deserves attention as much for its domestic
drama as for its crime solving. —Michele Leber

Rogue Lawyer.

By John Grisham.

Oct. 2015. 352p. Doubleday, $28.95 (9780385539432).

There comes a moment in this book whenthe reader is likely to think: “Ah, now I seewhat he’s doing.” At first, the novel appears tobe a series of tenuously related episodes in thelife of defense attorney Sebastian Rudd, whooperates his practice out of a customized vanand who actively seeks out big cases and doesn’tshy away from the media or from breaking theoccasional rule. The cases include the murdersof two girls; a man on trial for shooting a policeofficer (during a raid on the man’s house); theabduction of a pregnant woman; and a prisonbreak. They feel, at first, like stand-alone stories,but at some point past the halfway mark, theybegin to link up, and we realize that Grisham istrying to show us the fabric of Rudd’s workinglife—chaotic, unpredictable, with several casesgoing on at the same time. Rudd shares someliterary DNA with Michael Connelly’s MickeyHaller (the Lincoln Lawyer), but Grisham’shero is no rip-off. Rudd is a complex, compel-ling character, who, we hope, will appear againand again. —David Pitt

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The Grisham
name, of course, is all that’s needed to ensure
an audience, but this time he delivers a quality thriller to go with the brand.

Sacrifice: A Celtic Adventure.

By Philip Freeman.

Oct. 2015. 192p. Pegasus, $24.95 (9781605988894).

Freeman’s sequel to Saint Brigid’s Bones

(2014) gives readers another fascinating
glimpse into sixth-century Irish life, with the
story of a killer’s attacks on the nuns of Saint
Brigid’s monastery. Only someone with a deep-set knowledge of Druidic sacrificial techniques
could be responsible. Sacrificial killings—
beginning with the decapitated, exsanguinated
body of Sister Grainne, discovered in a bog—
continue despite Sister Deirdre’s efforts to
identify and stop the slayer. Death after gruesome death creates panic and suspicion among
the sisters, until even Deirdre is expelled from
the community for her druidic leanings. The
author, who holds a PhD in classics and Celtic
studies from Harvard, gracefully melds his
knowledge of Irish history and culture with a
stylish storyteller’s talent for suspense, drama,
and emotional appeal. Deirdre embodies the
historical clash and eventual assimilation of
folk beliefs, paganism, and the new religion of
Christianity, but she melds all of that with a
spirit of peacekeeping and compromise. Readers who appreciate strong, medieval female
sleuths, like Sister Fidelma (in Peter Tremayne’s
series) and Hilda of Whitby (in Nicola Griffith’s
Hild, 2013), will wait to hear much more from
Sister Deirdre. —Jen Baker

The Sand Men.

By Christopher Fowler.

Oct. 2015. 320p. Solaris, paper, $9.99 (9781781083741).

Dream World is supposed to be a superfab-ulous resort for gazillionaires in Dubai, with
rooms going for as much as $35,000 a night.
But there are problems, and London engineer
Roy Brook is offered a fortune to help solve
them. He moves his family to this computerized, air-conditioned Xanadu in the desert,
and his wife, Lea, the novel’s central character,
does her best to function in the chilly atmosphere where everything is robotic. Even the
people. She meets cranks who whisper that
the place is not what it seems. It’s not just
greed, they say; there’s evil at the core. We recognize a situation familiar from Grisham’s The
Firm (1991) to the Jurassic Parkmovies, and
we aren’t surprised when these doubters die
mysteriously, and when Lea begins an inquiry
of her own. Confrontations, treachery, and
chases follow, all of which Fowler skillfully
records,though sometimes the buildup goes
on so long some of the tension leaks away.
The evil, when it’s exposed, will either seem
stunning or elicit an “Aw, c’mon.” Still, for the
most part, Fowler delivers a fresh twist to a
familiar theme. —Don Crinklaw

Former nun Giulia Driscoll, owner of
Driscoll Investigations, is hired by MacAllister
“Mac” Stone to find out who is haunting her
lakeside bed-and-breakfast, Stone’s Throw,
and its associated lighthouse. Giulia and her
husband, police officer Frank Driscoll, travel
to Stone’s Throw to work undercover. Soon,

Knock on Wood.

By Linda O. Johnston.

Oct. 2015. 336p. Midnight Ink, paper, $14.99
(9780738745527).

The second in the Superstition series
starring Rory Chasen, who is the manager of a dog-grooming shop in Destiny,
California, a peculiar little town whose
residents all take superstitions very seriously. The deputy mayor, for example,
is obsessive about knocking on wood
for luck, but his habit doesn’t prevent
him from being murdered. Rory’s friend
Gemma, who recently arrived in town
and found a job managing a bookstore,
becomes a suspect in the crime, and Rory
sets out to clear her. The superstition angle is clever but may prove a little difficult
to keep fresh over a long run. Still, cozy
fans may be intrigued. —Amy Alessio

Minute Zero.

By Todd Moss.

Sept. 2015. 368p. Putnam, $27 (9780399168680).

On the outs with his superiors after the
events detailed in 2014’s The Golden Hour,

State Department crisis manager JuddRyker is surprised to find himself deployedto help make sure everything is legit inZimbabwe’s presidential election. Natu-rally, it turns out that virtually nothing ison the up-and-up in a country that seemson the verge of collapse: armed gangs areon the prowl, and there is a rumor thatenriched uranium is for sale. Moss, formerdeputy assistant secretary of state, useshis experience to forge a thriller based onan actual election in Zimbabwe. The talefeels authentic, and its focus on insidermanipulation of international events, ratherthan bullets, will attract fans of realisticpolitical fiction. —Jeff Ayers

Zen student and movie stunt double
Darcy Lott is lamenting the fact that her
movie career seems to by drying up when
she is offered an opportunity to work with
a hot new director filming in San Francisco. Meanwhile, she is trying to investigate
an attack on her Zen teacher, Garson-roshi.
She has no idea why someone would
attack a Zen master, though it does appear that Garson-roshi had some secrets,
including his mysterious once-a-month
disappearances. This series continues to
draw its appeal from the mix of its two
unlikely frames—Zen and the movie business—and from its heroine, who is more
tough and feisty than she is tranquil, despite her Zen training. —Barbara Bibel